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Introduction to The Bridge Podcast: Season 1

Join us for the introduction to The Bridge. Your hosts Andy Medley and Fabian Rodriguez look at what you can expect in season 1.

The Bridge Introduction: Episode Transcription

Intro: The Bridge is a podcast for all businesses where the consumer purchase takes place at a physical location, but those same consumers are shopping and narrowing their choices down online. That jump from online in store is where most businesses struggle. Each episode, we will focus on real strategies and examples from industry experts on how to dominate this complex and competitive environment by sharing the latest trends in technology and process.

Andy Medley: Hey, everybody. Andy Medley. This is The Bridge and we are doing a post season one recap, talking a little bit about —assuming you want to dive in and hear more about this — this series. We’re going to tell you what you’re going to be listening to. I got Fabian here with me.

Fabian Rodriguez: Hey, what’s up everybody? I am Fabian on the sales and marketing team here at PERQ. I’m super excited to go on this endeavor to create this podcast, The Bridge. We’ve been working on it for a while. I talked to a bunch of great people this season. Andy, I’m excited to just recap and kind of give people a sense of what to expect on this upcoming season.

Andy: That is the goal. So I’m CEO, cofounder of PERQ. First off, The Bridge is really focused on a core set of businesses that are all kind of sharing the same challenge. And that challenge is that these consumers, the people that they’re hoping are going to shop in their stores and come by things are really educating themselves online, spending more time to the point and really decision. But yet that transaction is still done face to face. You know, examples of industries like the multifamily industry where they’re trying to rent apartments and these individuals have tons of different opportunities to find and learn about the property online versus what used to be traditionally driving around and taking tours.

Andy: You know, big regional furniture stores that have great tons of inventory, but rather than those consumers starting that shopping by Saturday afternoon, driving in and walking around, they’re coming in already cause they spent their time online knowing exactly what type of furniture that they want. So how do you navigate that space and what’s the strategies that you can take advantage of? Because a lot of the traditional means are no longer being effective. So you’ve gotta feel comfortable jumping into that unknown abyss of digital marketing in whatever that means. We spent a lot of time talking to industry experts, marketers and these different types of industries to understand how they’re facing these challenges and the strategies that are taking place.

Fabian: Yeah. And I think what was cool is that we went in to some different industries that people wouldn’t necessarily kinda think about. Right? And I think that the consumer journey can mean so many different things in the way that people approach what that looks like. Those are some of the things that we got into this season. You know, some of those takeaways that you’ll find as you get into some of these later episodes are really cool. We talked to somebody who works with video. We talked to somebody who works specifically with data and how that really helps translate into making better marketing decisions, which I think is really cool. And then even, you know, going live onsite to record at a convention. which was kind of neat to be able to do that within the first season. But, you know, how did you think it went, Andy?

Andy: I thought it was a great learning environment. You know, you had individuals that were also learning while we were on, kind of brainstorming some different strategies and in certain instances, and some were challenging because maybe we didn’t necessarily think that what they were talking about was the right way to think about it. I think that’s exactly what this is all about. If you listen for the 25 minutes or 30 minutes, however long the episode is, and you leave thinking, then that’s really our goal. That it puts you in a spot where maybe you learn some things, but also you’re walking away, challenging yourself based on whatever the status quo is today. And we know, you know, this is a very niche market and niche industry. It’s certainly not going to be the the number one podcast of all time.

Andy: That might be, it might be, don’t put that up. Well that’s true. Maybe it’s like reverse psychology. Ideally you have some individuals in these spaces that are going to find this useful and should season one continue to go well, we’re gonna go into season two and we’ve already got some cool people lined up. But you know, as Fabian was saying, we heard not only from Jason Price at Covideo who specializes in how to create personalization online to people like Katrina Greene, whose job it is to do marketing for her property management company to RJ Talyor, who’s the big data guy that you mentioned and has some fascinating insights on how to leverage Facebook, for example, to really stand out and get niche in that market and get the best return you can when you’re spending those ad dollars. So just a ton of different individuals that had a lot of perspective. We had seven episodes.

Fabian: Yeah, seven episodes. So we talked to Katrina Greene from Sheehan, Joey Gunn from Knight Furniture, RJ Talyor from Pattern89. We went live, like I said, over at NAA and talk to Larry Bellack from Mobile Doorman, Paul Bergeron from Units magazine and an organization itself. You mentioned Jason Price and then we had others as well. So we are excited.

Andy: For those that are going to be participating in this experiment as we dive into a very niche market and those individuals who are excited to learn and understand that having a physical physical presence is actually an advantage. And the fact that those individuals as consumers are shopping online is just a difference in a first step.But the ability to really take advantage of that physical presence is really where we’re living and that is The Bridge. So enjoy the journey. Uh, if you have any feedback, feel free to hit me up at Twitter. That’s @andymedley. Uh, I’m always looking to improve. Have a great first season.

Fabian: Before we get out of here. There’s going to be a bonus episode at the end. So make it all the way to the end. If you like ghosts, you want to hear about a crazy experience one of our guests had, you’re going to have to listen to all these episodes and figure out who that was because I think they do make a quick mention of it potentially, but if not, you’ll have to wait till, uh, the season finale. We’re going to drop a bonus ghost episodes if you like that stuff, and make sure and tune in. But yeah. And do you want to hear me super skeptical? Yeah, that’s correct. All right guys, we’ll see you later.

This podcast is available on a number of platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms. You can see all of the platforms and link to the latest episode by visiting this link.